That was the assessment Thursday night from economists, who offered mainly positive reviews of President Barack Obama's $447 billion plan to stimulate job creation.

Some predicted it would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work next year, mainly because a Social Security tax cut for workers would be deepened and extended to small businesses.

"Payroll tax cuts are very powerful," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. "They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth."

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimated that the president's plan would boost economic growth by 2 percentage points, add 2 million jobs and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point next year compared with existing law.

That was the assessment Thursday night from economists, who offered mainly positive reviews of President Barack Obama's $447 billion plan to stimulate job creation.

Some predicted it would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work next year, mainly because a Social Security tax cut for workers would be deepened and extended to small businesses.

"Payroll tax cuts are very powerful," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. "They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth."

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimated that the president's plan would boost economic growth by 2 percentage points, add 2 million jobs and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point next year compared with existing law.

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how many economists?
link to the specific economist opinions?

Isn't that what they said about the Crapulus bill? You know, the one that left the unemployment rate up at 9.1%?

" Some economists cautioned that some factors might blunt the impact of Obama's enlarged Social Security tax cut. For one thing, the tax cut would deliver only a temporary boost. It would expire at the end of 2012. Most economists foresee unemployment remaining high well after next year.

And Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute, suggested that the link between consumer spending and job creation is weaker in an economy like America's that's highly open to foreign goods.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the economy.

"If the payroll tax cut encourages consumers to buy more (imported) clothing, that's likely to create more jobs overseas than in the U.S.," Mandel said.

In addition, Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said many taxpayers might save the extra money from the tax cut rather than spend it. "

PS: Only a far left ideologue would suggest that Obama's Jobs Bill would boost GDP by 2 points, or add 1 million jobs, or lower the UE rate by a full %. What a tool.

&#8220;If we&#8217;re talking about whether the package is big enough to &#8230; start making a dent, it&#8217;s probably going to fall short of that goal,&#8221; said Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution.

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The simulative potential of the plan is hindered by another factor: A majority of the plan&#8217;s spending is needed just to continue current law &#8212; something that will provide no boost.

According to a draft proposal of the plan, $120 billion would be spent to extend the payroll tax cut that has boosted the size of workers&#8217; paychecks this year. And $50 billion would be spent on unemployment insurance.

The expiration of those programs could slow the economy. But at the same time, their extension will not provide any additional stimulus.

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THAT, is how you post, TM, you dick-drip. You find a source that actually quotes an economist, instead of just 'saying' what some said.

"We are really behind the eight ball in terms of job growth here," says Charlotte economist John Connaughton. " We have really not done as well as the nation."

Which is pretty disconcerting considering the nation is doing so poorly, all eyes will be on President Obama tomorrow night as he reveals a new plan to restart America's job engine. But Connaughton says don't get your hopes up - he doesn't think it'll help.

"I don't think another program which will be roughly half the size, actually less than half the size, is going to do much at this point," he says.

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"What we need to be doing both nationally and on the state level is incentivizing private business to take risk," says Connaughton.

And something else: I'm tired of hearing we should spend 455 billion bucks right now without carefully determining how and where to spend it. Been there and done that with the 1st stimulus, anybody who is satisfied with the results we got from that is nuts.

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